


KH 60 minutes - Reunion

by aquanort



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Reunion, gay fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-17
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-11-19 13:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18136157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquanort/pseuds/aquanort
Summary: It's about time that old coot got his memory back.





	KH 60 minutes - Reunion

Braig zoned out in Lab C and let his hands do the work of pipetting liquid into a test tube by muscle memory, just as he had every day for the past six months. Six long, horrendously boring months of waiting for the old coot to snap out of it and actually take hold of his new body so they could get on with the plan. Not that anyone besides Braig minded the new Xehanort, of course. On the contrary, everyone seemed to love how intelligent and curious and precocious the young man was, but Braig could see only some stranger inhabiting the body of the man who’d taken out his eye and scarred his face.

To be honest, he’d hoped that that whole little amnesia thing was just an act for old man Ansem to take pity on him and let him into the lab. Braig couldn’t deny that his heart had skipped a beat when he gave the name “Xehanort” out in the courtyard; at the very least, it meant Terra had been successfully evicted as planned, but what he’d really _hoped_ it meant was that the old coot was in there in his place.

No such luck. The name “Xehanort” was all that was left of him, it seemed, the name and a pull toward the science of the heart, though since the rest of the apprentices were already doing that anyway, who’s to say it wasn’t just him latching onto the nearest thing he could find to fill his empty head?

Braig had tried to be friendly at first. He called the stranger by all the pet names old Master Xehanort had chuckled at, only to be met with greater disdain each time. He’d tried probing him about keyblades, about his old friend Eraqus, about the boy in the mask and his own previous research, only to be met with confusion and even annoyance. His jokes were met with blank stares. His hands were shrugged off. Weeks passed, and then months, until finally, Braig gave up. All he could do now was go through the motions and wait for Even and Master Ansem to make some progress tapping into Xehanort’s memories.

If push came to shove, Braig was prepared to carry out the plan himself. He’d have no choice.

Determination could only do so much for Braig’s loneliness, though. Loathe as he was to admit it even to himself, he’d actually grown a _soft spot_ for the old guy. For as much as he preached the gospel of darkness, all he’d done for Braig’s life was brighten it. And now…

The door to the lab slid open with a hydraulic hissing sound. Braig didn’t even turn around. He knew who his lab partner for the day was, and he recognized the sound of the footsteps, though it was over an hour past the time he’d been expecting the guy to show up.

“Get stuck in traffic or something?” Braig muttered without looking up from his test tube.

There was an uncomfortably long pause.

“Jeez, I was joking. Least you could do is laugh.”

To Braig’s surprise, the man behind him actually did laugh, and he nearly emptied the pipette in shock. The voice was familiar of course, but he’d never heard the new Xehanort _laugh_ before. He turned around to look at him.

“Is that how you greet your old master these days?”

The features and the voice were the same as always, but the intonation, the sly smirk with one eye threatening to close, the hands clasped behind his back--

Braig barely had the capacity to return the test tube to its rack before getting to his feet. “...Xehanort? Is it really you?”

His smile softened a bit, eyes crinkling with amusement, and stepped forward. “I hope you haven’t been doubting that my memory would return.”

“Well you sure took your time, you old coot,” Braig snapped back, but there was no venom in his voice, only pain. _I missed you_ , he didn’t say, instead closing the rest of the gap and collapsing into Xehanort’s arms. He looked different, smelled different, felt different, but there was something familiar about the hug all the same, and about the hand that came up to rest on the back of his head, petting his hair. Braig should be embarrassed at how quickly this geezer could turn him into a puddle in his hands, but he could just as quickly make him forget there was anyone else in the world besides the two of them.

Last time they’d embraced like this, Xehanort had been an old man with gloved hands, and he ran his now bare fingers through Braig’s hair with affectionate curiosity, then pulled back to cup the scarred face in his hands and examine him closely. He brushed one thumb over the jagged scar up Braig’s cheek, the other along the string of the eyepatch, thumbing at the edge but not flipping it up, gazing deep into the golden eye with his own deep brown ones. In the back of their minds, it occurred to them simultaneously that they’d managed to switch eye colors, but before either of them could quip about it, Xehanort pulled Braig’s face to his own and pressed their lips together, softly at first, then passionately as Braig’s hands came up to rest on his waist.

After a too-short moment, Xehanort broke the kiss but didn’t pull away, resting his forehead on Braig’s and speaking softly against his mouth. “How I’ve missed you.”

Braig snorted, turning and burying his face in Xehanort’s shoulder to conceal the redness rising to his cheeks. “Hey, that’s my line. I was the one out here without you, doing all the work to move the plan along while you were off in la-la land.”

“It hasn’t been all fun and games for me,” Xehanort said with a chuckle, turning to nuzzle his face in Braig’s hair. “I’ve hardly been allowed near any of the most vital research. I have no idea how the experiments are progressing, and it’s only been through Even and Ansem’s curiosity about my memories that I’ve been allowed into Lab A at all.”

Finally, a goal to distract Braig from all the sap of this reunion. Just in time, too -- he’d been about to start getting teary and emotional.

“Well, lemme fill you in then, Mister Master.” He smirked and threw an arm over Xehanort’s shoulders, half expecting to be shrugged off like always, but instead an arm wrapped tightly around his waist, pulling him close, and his heart skipped a beat. Well, he needed a break from work anyway. They headed for the door of the lab to take a stroll around the castle grounds, catching up and laughing and plotting like the old days. It was time to get this show on the road at last.

**Author's Note:**

> i caved and made some corrections and quality-of-life edits after the fact, i think it's at its best now khljgh
> 
> i love this ship....evil power couple......absolutely iconic


End file.
